Liverpool spent over400 million to rebuild Slots team and yet he's just lost three games in a row for the first time in his career. So how has so much money led to a worse Liverpool? I'm going to be breaking down why the new signings have created problems in slot system. What's stopping their 100 million pound record signing from being effective? and how this is all leading to the best player in the league last year, Mouhammad Salah, now having his worst season at Liverpool so far. Why exactly have their signings created problems? And what must slot change to fix it? Liverpool brought in seven new faces in the summer and broke their transfer record twice.
And something that I think is really worth doing here is to establish why they were signed. And to do that, we need to have a look at who they've replaced. quite a few players from the first team left over the summer, meaning replacements were required. This was Liverpool's typical lineup last season. During buildup, the back four was initially quite flat, allowing for different options in that first phase of play. And this was really beneficial to Liverpool as you got someone like Trent who was extremely comfortable on the ball in these deep areas and threatening. And you can see exactly that from Trent's touch map here. Now, compare that to Frimong and you can see a big difference with the touches. very high in the final third. Now at left back Robertson was also asked to be on the ball in deep areas. Now look at the average positions this season against Bournemouth.
New left back Kirk is asked to stay deeper too resulting I can't believe I'm about to say this. He only touched the ball twice in the final third and this came as quite a surprise given how attack minded he was at Bournemouth. This touch map shows him not only receiving the ball in the final third but even in the opposition's box. And this is something that we need to come back to. Let's take a look at the huge change to Liverpool's forward line. Last season, slots settled on Lewis Diaz as his main striker through the middle, who was initially a left winger. Diaz frequently picked up these positions on the pitch and occasionally he was leaving Liverpool without an actual striker. But what Diaz did was he made sort of associative runs depending on the positioning of his teammates. You can see him running behind Sabosla here, allowing him to target the space once Salah gets the ball where he receives it and scores. Ekit has come in and his role has been somewhat similar on certain aspects, peeling to the left, but he's frequently in the middle, too. It started well for Ekit as well. You know, six goal involvements in all competitions since his Liverpool debut. And so the real issues become clear when we look at two of their biggest signings, Vertz and Issach, and how they tie into Liverpool's problems. So what begun as a simple question has now become a real problem. How do you fit all these players into one starting 11? Especially given the huge differences in their profiles. So far this season, Liverpool have conceded nine goals, ranking only 11th in the league. This is such a big drop off considering they had the second best defense in the league last season.
But this season, the first goal they conceded against Bournemouth. In hindsight, it should have been a big warning sign. This was their lineup against Bournemouth. And so without Gravenber in that one, the double pivot was formed of Soboslai and Mallister. Two kind of technically brilliant footballers. So played a more attacking role under slot last season, meaning he naturally took more risks. But here he's doing it in a deeper position with four Liverpool players ahead of him. So when he loses the ball after attempting a sort of risky flick, it forces seven Liverpool players to rush back from advanced positions. One pass to David Brooks allows Bournemouth to exploit a huge space in Liverpool's half. They conceded in the space of 8 seconds here after losing the ball. and at the time an avoidable goal to concede but possibly a sign of a wider problem. So with that idea of so many kind of technical first players on the pitch, it takes away from that natural defensive nouse of a team.
But of course, Gravenber has returned. So why is there still a structural issue for Liverpool? Well, this brings us to the big elephant in the room or the small German. There are a few key things I think we need to unpack to understand what's going on. So I'm going to be looking at why vert fried at leakusen the problem with his Liverpool role and how his arrival as well as Isach and Eatik's have affected Salah. Now first of all let's establish what made him a 100 million pound player at Bay Leverkusen. This is how Jabi Alonzo set up Leverkusen last season and there's some crucial ingredients here that Vertz doesn't have around him currently at Liverpool. Now this is the average positions against Hoffenheim last season. Vertz is spending most of his time in half spaces and touches the ball wide in the final third as well.
And although Grimmaldo was also on that left, he was extremely wide and he stayed out of the way in the final third. Their striker Bonyface wasn't really demanding of the ball, only touching it 15 times in the 45 minutes that he played in this one. And this structure led to Vert picking up the ball in these types of areas where nobody, this is crucial here, nobody is getting in his way. This zone is entirely his to dominate. All of these elements brought the best out of his talent, creating outrageous chances like this. And even when the spaces were tighter against low blocks, Vert still created chances because his teammates left this space vacant for him, allowing for interchanges and a shot at goal against a low block defense. This was Vert's heat map after coming on against Crystal Palace. Now instantly you can see that his touches are quite diverse in where he's getting on the ball which for me I think is a problem. Vertz initially does really well to win the ball high up the pitch. But look at the left side. It's taken up by Kirz and Gako leaving Vertz more central instead of playing wide.
Vert turns and shoots but it's blocked cuz he's in a crowded area. And because he's operating in areas different from those that he had at le sharp and he doesn't look as comfortable. Vertz may have had success in half spaces at Leverkusen, but his starting position was a crucial factor. He was allowed to start wide, then combined with teammates in central areas, allowing him to end up in these spaces, not start in them, and he was at his best doing exactly this. This points towards a wider problem in Liverpool structure, and it's affecting one player in particular. The Liverpool conundrum is fascinating and I was sort of nervous to put it out there. There is a problem there with Salah, isn't there? Like, no one wants to say it. No one wants to say it. I'm scared to say it, but >> this time next year, I don't think Salad will be at the club. >> I don't think Van Dijk trusts Kirk. Come and be a part of the JLA substack. Links in the description. So, during buildup, many players occupy the left side, creating congestion and drawing Palace players over. That forces Van Djk to pass to the right instead, even though Liverpool clearly want to play down the left whenever possible. So here Van Djk is in possession and Vertz drops deep to receive the ball. But Van Djk instead doesn't choose to pass the ball to him.
He goes long to find Ekitake making the opposite movement. So in theory this is fine as Vertz drags away a player to create space for Ekitique. But this is another example of how they don't really play to Vertz's strengths. And again Liverpool stretch the pitch and they bypass the midfield with this long pass to Gako. Vertz makes a move towards the ball just as Van Djk plays the pass. So when Gakpo receives it, it's actually Jones who is in the position Vertz would ideally take up. Van Dijk's pass map from the second half against Crystal Palace completely backs this up for me. All of his forward passes went to the left and all of the passes that he played to his right were lateral short passes. In the same game last season, there was so much more emphasis on playing forward and to the right. And these long beautiful raking passes to the right were often aimed towards Salah. And he's a point of concern to me this season. Firstly, let's address where he's getting the ball before we analyze why his dribbling has fallen off a cliff so far this season.
Now, initially, his heat map from last season looks similar to this. But there there's one key difference. Salah's touches in the box have drastically fallen from 9.49 last season to 4.71 this season. In fact, this is the lowest it's ever been by some distance since joining Liverpool. So, why is this happening? Well, have a look at this from last season. Diaz, who started as a striker, drop deep to the left. This is supported by Sabers's off the ball movement. His run creates the space for Salah to drift into from the right. And last season, he was always aware of where Salah is, even squaring it across to him for an easy goal. So plays a crucial part in this goal without even touching the ball. Carw Walker Peters is extremely aware of Soazlai's positioning and focuses on it, leading team losing concentration on Salah's positioning for just that split second. But from there, Salah attacks the space, receives the ball in his desired area and scores. Now have a look at this season against Chelsea. The nearest Liverpool player to Salah is Connor Bradley, the right back.
Now last season he would have had Trent and Saboslai there to form a triangle. Now without a gobetween player Salah drops deeper to open up the passing lane to receive the ball but now he has few options to play inside. He's able to play it to Isach who tries to play it back to him. It's an extremely difficult pass with Garnacho and Cookarea shutting off the angles. The pass it gets over hit and Salah is now moving away from the box. Here's another key difference. Issach makes the run in behind into the space Salah would have attacked last season and that movement pulls Solight over to the left. But with Issach focused on finishing rather than creating, it means his movements will be totally different to Dominic as a 10 or Lewis Diaz as well as a false nine. Now against Everton in the emergency side derby, Salah did have so in these positions and look how different it instantly is with the spaces Salah is able to move into. And that results in Liverpool having an overload in the box, generating space for Salah to receive the ball in. Subsoy has the ball here and is instantly looking for Salah as Connor Bradley makes the forward run.
Subs finding Salah so quickly, it then allows Salah to operate in space before being closed down. Meanwhile, Bradley's run drags Michael Keane away, creating space for Gravenber to receive and score, resulting in an assist for Muhammad Salah. So the problem is Soaslie has been moved around a lot this season, playing as a right back more than any other position. And with Sobasai playing right back more than anything else, his movement in the final third hasn't been a regular occurrence for Liverpool. And crucially for Salah, Salah has only made one successful dribble this season. One with an accuracy of 12.5%. Last season, he averaged 1.5 per game with a success rate of 45%. You had Trent finding him with passes in behind, letting him attack space with speed. This season, he's receiving it to feet so much more with less teammates around him, and he's open to being doubled up on far more frequently. Meaning that if he evades the initial challenge, he will eventually run into trouble. And you'll have seen it right now. Let's move on to Isach. It's still early to criticize. It really, really is. But his role up front does it affects things around him. So, let's go back a bit. Kenate has the ball here and Issach has drifted away from the center backs to become that option to feed. But look at Sosai. He's looking at where Salah is.
A good thing that he did a lot last season. Issach gets the ball, drags Ache out of position, displacing their back line. And Issach's movement is so good, but the lack of movement into this space by his teammates isn't. Isach plays it wide to Salah. And the way that Subazla's role changes because of this one pass is crazy. Instead of supporting Salah, he makes this forward run. It's because Liverpool want a player attacking the near post. So Isach can wait at the back post, but this means Chelsea double up on Salah and the ball gets played backwards. So what's the solution? And before we get into this, there's one thing I do want to say. Of course, this isn't just like play this team forever more, but like any great team, you move towards what your generally your best team is. And this for me feels like a possible solution to find some balance. There'll be games where you got to play different players, but I'd like to see this. So, first of all, the right back position is really interesting, but the most natural right back in this squad is Connor Bradley.
Fact, and it will reveal itself later on why I think this is needed. Now, the center backs stay the same for me. At left back is Kirz, who we've not seen the best of yet, but I think this setup could help Mallister and Grafenberg. have to be in here not only for their huge ability to cover huge spaces but also because of their ability to receive the ball from the defense and link the forwards into play. So next I've got one of two Rio or Frimple. Without so lie you simply don't get the best out of Salah on the right. But with one of these two you've got two explosive players who can receive the ball on their own, beat players 1 v one and drive to the by line and pull back crosses. Now on the left, Florian Vertz. This is the position he needs to be in. We spoke about it earlier about his starting position and how crucial that is for his output. Starting as the left midfielder would allow for that. And ultimately, it does allow Liverpool to get the best out of Kirk going forward attacking spaces like these.
Holding the width in the process up top, I think you have to play both Ecat and Issach. And here's why. Ekit is comfortable with his back to goal in these spaces. whilst also he's got that ability to spin in behind and that would allow for bounce passes with verts in his desired areas whilst also bringing in Kirk. Having those two strikers, it allows for counter movements. If Isach goes short, Echitique can easily attack the space in behind. Plus, it allows them to target the near and back posts when crossing the ball. And finally, it would allow Liverpool to have a better pressing structure with two forwards there and ready. If you drop into a 442 mid block, you're fine. If you want to go 424 and be far more aggressive, you've got players in positions ready to go. Currently, what's happening a lot of the time is Salah's kind of sort of half moving over to that side as part of that two, but it kind of looks like a three. It's been either Vert or So, and I think when you're starting from behind the two players, you're just giving a read to those center backs and it allows you to just go bump bomb and pop it around that press. Now leaving out Salah, it's a huge call for Slot and it's easy for me to say it just chatting to a camera, but with a new team and no like for like replacements, he can't revert to last season's tactics in my opinion. And I'm not doubting Slot for a second, but what he has to do is be brave and inventive with the solution and find a solution that suits everyone.
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